My hair has a mind of its own, and half the time I can't begin to fathom what it's thinking. Seriously, my hair won't conform to any sort of style, not even a ponytail or a bun. Then a friend told me that I need to feed my hair a proper diet if I wanted to introduce some semblance of order to the chaos that was my tangled mane of rough tresses.

I tried everything, hot oil treatments, deep conditioning, leave-in conditioners, frizz tamers, and nothing seemed to work. Not for long at least. I experienced brief periods of success and that gave me some hope for a beautiful head of hair, but nothing seemed like the long-term payoff I was looking for. Then I started using red palm oil as a regular hair treatment. Mostly I started doing so because of a video I saw on YouTube, but the fact that a little goes a long way and the benefits are clearly noticeable keep me faithful.

I just warm up the oil to a liquid consistency (easily achieved with a bowl of hot water) and massage a small amount into my scalp. I really take the time to invigorate my scalp with a relaxing massage, then I rub a little more oil through the length of my hair, focusing on a heavier application at the roots and ends of my hair rather than the middle of the strands. Then I just chill out for 15 minutes, or longer, until I'm ready to shower and wash my hair. I did try an overnight application once before and made a mess of my pillowcase... consider yourself warned.